Family and Traps

Aether sat in his study alone. He sent out his attendants to wait for his brother to show up on the moon. They were given specific instructions to bring him to this room no mater what he said. The potential for disaster was that strong. Aether didn't believe he would come all the way here just to see him. This was far from his domain after all. Then a knock on the door snapped him back to reality.

"Enter."

One of his attendance opened the door fallowed by a person dressed in the same type of robes as the all seer and all speaker. The garment was covered in shadows and what could be seen was just the cloth covering his whole figure from view. The man looked over at the attendant. "You may leave."

The attendant looked over at Aether as he confirmed the request then left. "What are you doing here in that Erebus?"

Erebus walked up to the desk. "Can I have a seat before we start in the conversation?"

"Sure take a seat."

Erebus sat down and looked around the room. "I would have expected some type of refreshments around here."

"Do you want some spirits?"

"I would rather have some tea."

Aether banged on the desk three times and the attendant entered the room. "Please make us some of the best tea you can, as quickly as you can."

"Yes your holiness." The attendant said then quietly ran from the room.

Aether put his attention back on his brother "Where did you get that robe?"

"It was a gift from our brother, the All Knower."

Aether furrowed his brows. "What does he want?"

"Nothing. Why do you hate him so much?"

"Magic requires hope, and someone that knows everything, needs no hope."

"How is the goddess of hope doing these days?"

Aether's mood lightened. "My mother is doing fine, praise at a different church every day."

"I always did like her."

"Why did he give you those cloths?"

"He came in to my domain the other day. Wanted to travel all the way down to the source. Saying he wanted to see the birth of a new god."

"There is a new god?"

"Yes, but barely. It was from the mass created during the age of the metal blight."

"But I thought the mass shrank?"

"Yes but it never went away. Its source never truly stopped."

Aether was now getting excited "So what is this new god?"

"They will probably end up being a child of mine. They feed of the emotions of death but only one believes in them so far. To weak to act on its own. If the believer is not careful it will be assimilated into one of the others."

"That might be the best thing for the entire mass. What does it look like?"

"It's a humanoid with wings like a hawk, covered all over by shadows. Our brother called it 'The Angle of Death.'"

There was a knock at the door. "That tea was quick. Enter."

The attendant walked in with a pitcher of hot water with some tea leaves in it on a tray with two cups, a strainer and some honey for a sweetener. Set it on the edge of the desk and bowed before straining some tea in to the cups.

Aether waited for them to finish "You may leave now." The attendant bowed again then quickly left the room.

Erebus took his cup and lifted it up to the cloth mask and pored it in to his mouth through a small slit. Draining his cup in one go. "Brother was right. This is good tea. But I must be going."

"Where are you headed?"

"I just want to speak to a few old friends and family while I have the time. Our brother said his charm would only last for five days, two hours and something minutes and seconds with me. I promise to be off the moon by then brother. Is that OK with the lord of the moon?"

"As long as your power is contained, I see no reason to deny you brother. But I would like one of my attendance to accompany you."

Erebus stood up and set the cup back down on the desk. "As long as I am not told where to go that would be fine."

Erebus walked to the door as Aether banged on his desk three times and the door opened and one of his attendance came in. "Fallow Erebus but don't tell him where to go."

The attendant bowed as Erebus left the room, the attendant fallowed closing the door.

Aether was left alone while the chair and cup Erebus used turned to dust and faded away and sighed. "And that is with it being contained."

- - -

Nick and Hasso watched the setting sun blanket the valley in twilight.

Nick turned to Hasso. "Is it just me or has this day been pretty uneventful?"

"We covered more ground than I thought we would."

Nick looked over at the cub curled up in a ball "The cub is sleepy so we should call it a night."

Hasso looked around with the monocular. "Yeah, that group you spotted earlier is still fallowing us."

Nick intentionally didn't look in their direction. "Just act normal, If they are going to do something they will do it tonight."

"And if they don't do anything tonight?"

"Then the likelihood of them doing anything goes down. This is an animal trail not a street. They are likely to be hunters or bandits. Merchants, civilians and soldiers have the money and people to be in a caravan. And caravans need larger trails than this."

"Couldn't it also be people too poor for a caravan?"

"Sure, but they would see us then run away, not fallow us."

A loud sound came from the direction of the individuals tracking them and the cub started to bark.

Hasso crouched low. "What was that."

"Don't know, but it's time to turn the tables, lets go."

Hasso and Nick started running towards the sound while the cub was barking at a tree close by.

A shadowy figure walked out from behind the tree and walked towards the cub. The cub stopped barking as Pasht knelt down in front of it. "They have no sense of smell, that's why they need you."

Pasht picked up the cub and kissed it on the forehead. "This blessing is for your bravery in defending your siblings against invaders. I don't know why you decided to join them. But If you change your mind, you can leave. Your path is yours not theirs. If they mistreat you, you have my blessing to hurt them and even to kill them."

Pasht looked in the direction that Nick and Hasso ran off in and put the cub down. "Looks like my time is almost up. Remember what I said."

The cub started barking towards a new sound coming from where Nick and Hasso left.

"It's just us boy."

Hasso shook his head. "He can't hear us remember?"

"Hopefully the next thing we salvage has a voice module."

"At least who ever was fallowing us is gone."

"That just raises more questions than answers."

Hasso pointed at the cub "At least they didn't double back for Jaeger as you feared."

"Yeah. But we should be cautious for the next few days though."

- - -

Pasht walked through the twilight in to the command tent, where Victor and Victoria were still planning for the next day. "I pulled your scouts off of them. They knew they were there."

Victor was surprised "What? How? They are my best trackers."

Victoria was unfazed but saw a look on Pasht's face and tried quickly to head off a fight. "That's good, we don't want them looking over their shoulders tomorrow. Thank you for your swift action."

Pasht looked over to where the four test subjects were and in their place was four large crystals. "What are those?"

Victoria beamed with excitement "These are my personal linking crystals. They will report anything the test subjects will encounter. Once their are linked."

Pasht hit her head lightly. "That reminds me. When I talked to the great wolf, it said it heard a voice in its mind. Telling it to go after the one on the roof of its den, when it knew that there was another closer."

Victoria was shocked. "You're telling me this now?"

"You threw a lot at me when I got back."

Victoria covered her head. "We didn't need to plan over half of what we did."

"I'm sorry I forgot, but you know now."

Victoria composed herself "Your right. We don't need these big crystals, the medium ones will do."

Victoria looked over at Victor starting to give commands. "Have your men take theses back to my personal tent. They need to bring back the crate that says 'mind crystals.' They can place the crate here."

Victor bowed "Yes your holiness, right away." And hurried out of the tent calling for some men.

Victoria then looked at Pasht. "Is there anything else you forgot?"

Pasht thought for a moment. "They have no sense of smell. Does that help?"

"A little. Not much"

"That is all I can remember."

Pasht then turned around and headed for the entrance "If you need anything from me, I'll be in my personal tent. Make sure you get rest also, tomorrow is a big day."

Victoria smiled as several men came in to take the crystals. "I'll keep that in mind Pasht. Be careful with those."